Prompt
Your roommate and close friend, Hannah, is two weeks away from final exams that will decide whether she keeps the scholarship that pays for her degree. Her mother calls you, not Hannah, to tell you that Hannah's grandfather, who raised her for much of her childhood, has moved into hospice care and is expected to live a few more weeks. The family has decided not to tell Hannah until her exams are over, because she failed a course last year after a family crisis. Her mother asks you to keep the secret and to keep an eye on her. What would you do?
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What this question tests
- Ethical reasoning
- Empathy and compassion
- Communication
How to approach this question
This end-of-life MMI station tests whether you'd keep a family's secret when it means hiding from your close friend that the man who raised her is dying. Name the competing interests: the family's wish to protect her scholarship, Hannah's right to know and to say goodbye, and your own position as the person who would be keeping it from her every day. Ask aloud how certain the timeline is and whether you could urge her mother to reconsider before acting on your own. Weigh keeping the secret, telling Hannah yourself, and pressing the family to tell her, then commit to one. When the station shortens the time left, consider whether the balance between her exams and a last goodbye has shifted, and say why it has or hasn't.
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